FBI continues to investigate former CIA director General Petraeus

Current and former US intelligence officials say the FBI still has an open investigation into whether David Petraeus improperly provided highly classified documents to a mistress. The case has been open since 2012, when he resigned as CIA director.

While the FBI was investigating an unrelated email cyber stalking
complaint, they discovered David Petraeus’ extramarital affair
with Paula Broadwell, his biographer. Though that discovery led
to Petraeus’ resignation, the FBI still has an open investigation
into whether Petraeus improperly provided highly classified
documents to Broadwell. The unauthorized material was found on
Broadwell’s personal computer.

“It was inappropriately shared and it should never have been
shared,” one former senior intelligence official told
Bloomberg News.

The FBI cleared Broadwell of the cyber stalking charges. Yet two
US officials familiar with the investigation said she was never
authorized to receive the classified documents found on her
computer because “it included compartmentalized intelligence
that only a handful of very senior officials were approved to
view,” according to Bloomberg News.

That breach in the eyes of the FBI is a serious matter despite
President Obama saying Petraeus never endangered national
security.

At the time of the investigation in 2012, both Petraeus and
Broadwell denied to investigators that he was the source of any
classified information, officials said.

Since the scandal broke, the former general began working with
private-equity firm KKR, and has academic posts at Harvard and
the University of Southern California. Still, White House sources
told Bloomberg that the Obama administration has sought his
advice on the fight against the Islamic State, and still has his
security clearance.

“All of us who know him and are close to him are mystified by
the fact there is still this investigation into him,” said
Jack Keane, a retired four-star US Army General, and an adviser
and mentor to Petraeus.

Keane
questions whether the ongoing investigation may be driven by
something other than a desire to investigate a potential crime.
“It makes you
wonder if there is another motivation to drag an investigation
out this long,” he
said.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utha), the incoming chairman of the House
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said the
investigation needs to end if there are no charges coming.

“If he has done something wrong, charge him, if he has not,
let him go,” he said. “At this point I don’t know what
their motivation is. But I worry they will let this linger until
the President leaves office.”

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utha), the incoming chairman of the House
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said the
investigation needs to end if there are no charges coming.

“If he has done something wrong, charge him, if he has not,
let him go,” he said. “At this point I don’t know what
their motivation is. But I worry they will let this linger until
the President leaves office.”